


Nostalgia in a Time of Crisis

by generic_cruiser



Series: Rewriting reality: Framework AUs [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Framework Universe (Marvel), Gen, throwback to s1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/generic_cruiser/pseuds/generic_cruiser
Summary: Storytime: last month I posted a framework AU that did fairly well, and I promised more chapters if yall wanted them. You did, but when I went to write it I kinda lost motivation to continue that story, and it turned into this one. I have started chapters for that other one (or I'm trying to), but in the meantime, enjoy some more framework AUs. I'll probably be updating this series in between my WIP story because just writing for the same story gets boring.Anyways, I hope yall enjoy!
Relationships: Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson, mild Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: Rewriting reality: Framework AUs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202327
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Nostalgia in a Time of Crisis

**Author's Note:**

> Storytime: last month I posted a framework AU that did fairly well, and I promised more chapters if yall wanted them. You did, but when I went to write it I kinda lost motivation to continue that story, and it turned into this one. I have started chapters for that other one (or I'm trying to), but in the meantime, enjoy some more framework AUs. I'll probably be updating this series in between my WIP story because just writing for the same story gets boring. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope yall enjoy!

Daisy wakes up in bed. 

For a minute, she can almost pretend that everything is normal, because the bed she’s in is incredibly familiar and warm and comforting. But then everything from the past week rushes back, and she bolts upright. And slams her head on the roof of her van. 

Well, shit.

Okay, so she lives in her van in the Framework. The possible reasons for this rush through her mind as she makes her shitty coffee:  _ maybe she hasn’t been kidnapped by S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, maybe she’s doing her vigilante shit, maybe here she’ll never meet S.H.I.E.L.D.  _

Radcliffe said he was eliminating regrets. Daisy doesn’t regret joining S.H.I.E.L.D., although there are definitely parts of the experience that she would omit if she had the choice. But maybe this is his twisted solution: have Daisy Johnson revert back to her hacktivist days in her van with way shittier coffee than she initially thought. And she’s probably Skye again too.

Her prediction proves to be correct seconds later; her house is in the same alley as always, and there’s a picture of Miles taped to the door.  _ Ugh. _

Okay. Of all the places she could’ve ended up in a false reality created by a Scotsman and a robot, this isn’t so bad. She has the resources to hack S.H.I.E.L.D., find Simmons and get to everyone else. Should be easy enough. 

~

Jemma Simmons wakes up with an incredibly sore neck. 

She instantly feels the  _ I just spent ungodly hours in the lab and maybe slept there _ feeling that hasn’t been around since the academy. It’s so comforting, so natural, that it takes her a second to realize how alarming it should be. 

And holy shit, she’s back at Sci-Ops. She hasn’t been here in years. Since she and Fitz got recruited by Coulson, specifically, and she’d usually be feeling nostalgic, except her being here could potentially be  _ very _ bad for her plan.

“Hey, I got you tea!”

Oh no. “Uh, thanks.” 

Fitz places the tea down, giving Jemma a moment to blink herself awake. They’re in their lab, with work everywhere. She’d be feeling exceptionally nostalgic if this wasn’t all happening in a virtual space.

“I worked a little bit after you fell asleep but then you were snoring and it was making noise so I tried to sleep too, but I only slept for an hour.” He presses his lips together, looking regretful. “Didn’t mean to insult you, your snoring wasn’t  _ that _ annoying, it’s just not fun working while you’re sleeping.”

“It’s fine Fitz. Uh, I need to go to the restroom.” A lame excuse, but Jemma’s tired and it works.

_ Thank God for calendars _ is something she never thought she would ever think, but here she is, in a bathroom stall, staring at the calendar app in her phone. It’s three days after Coulson asked them to join his team in the real world, years ago, so either he never asked  _ here, _ or he did and they declined. It would certainly play into how Radcliffe had been hoping to eliminate regrets.

She’s halfway through keying in Daisy’s number when she realizes that if she and Fitz aren’t with Coulson, then Daisy is probably still Skye, and her phone number probably isn’t the encrypted one given to her by a government agency. Duh. But Daisy’s smart, so she’s probably figured out their predicament, and is already working on reaching Jemma. She just needs to be patient. And she should probably get back to Fitz, unless she wants him to think she has indigestion.

~

With all her new knowledge from the past four or so years, hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. is way easier than it was when Daisy last was Skye. She’s past the firewalls within 15 minutes, and is skimming through personnel files, looking for Simmons. It’s likely that if Daisy is Skye, then Fitzsimmons are probably still lab rats and didn’t join Coulson’s team. Jemma had told her all about Fitz’s hesitation to go into the field, so maybe in this reality he convinced her not to go at all, and none of the traumatic shit they went through will ever happen. Neither will the good times, either.

Her algorithm is set up so that whenever it finds Simmons, it’ll beep very loudly, which gives Daisy the opportunity to focus on other things. She has some money from her last Rising Tide job, so she could potentially buy stronger, better tasting coffee, or maybe turn herself into Fury just for shits and giggles. It would definitely get her closer to Simmons, just maybe not in the most effective way.

If she and Fitzsimmons aren’t with Coulson on the Bus, it stands to reason that no one else is. Coulson doesn’t have his team, May’s still filing paperwork in administration, Ward is still doing whatever double agent bullshit Garrett wants him doing. Daisy shudders involuntarily at the thought that Ward is running around being his nazi self, even if he’s not real. And May, she’s still recovering from Bahrain, in whatever way she chooses. And Coulson died just weeks ago. Fitzsimmons are the only ones living a remotely normal life at this point, which sounds insane considering all the shit they’ve been through.  _ None of them except Jemma will even  _ know  _ Daisy. _

All of it’s been wiped away, all of their experiences and love for one another. Radcliffe really did a shitty job. 

The computer finally beeps, drawing Daisy out of her fun little crisis, and back into the problem at hand. Now that she’s found Jemma, she can track where her friend has been within the past hour or so, then create a good enough fake id and cover story to get her into….the Hub, apparently. Shit, they really are back to the beginning. 

~

Fitz’s face is full of concern when Jemma returns, and she has to stop herself from rushing to him the way she did when he’d come back from another dimension and she’d come back from being kidnapped by her own boss.  _ We’re just mindlessly pining right now, neither of us knows our own feelings, keep it together. _

“Are you okay, you were gone a long time.”

“You’re timing my bathroom breaks?” Teasing him is the best option; it’s normal enough behavior for them, and it hides how goddamn conflicted she is. 

Fitz’s expression immediately changes from concerned to embarrassed. “N-no, of course not, I was just asking out of  _ concer- _ ”

“Relax, I’m only joking. And no, I’m fine. There were plumbing issues, believe it or not. Real plumbing, not like, bodily plumbing or anything.”

“Oh. Okay then, should we get back to work? I have a theory about how to make my design work better, but I need your biochemistry knowledge.”

Jemma bites her lip. If she’s not careful, there’s a chance she’ll get sucked in. She really does miss young optimistic Fitz, although she loves who he is in the real world even more. “Shouldn’t we eat first? Doing experiments on empty stomachs never ends well.”

“Of course, yes. Smart. Should we go down to the cafeteria or go offsite, I always get the feeling there’s some sort of poison in the food here.”

“It’s ridiculous, we work for a government agency for God’s sake. They should serve halfway decent food!”  _ Shit. _

They end up taking Fitz’s entirely too sensible car to a food court they frequented. Some of the staff knew them by name, and it was a nice place to go over ideas, as long as no one overheard anything too classified. Jemma knew it would be the last place Daisy would ever think to look for them, but hopefully the trip would give each of them time to formulate a plan. A super spy and a genius: they should be able to come up with something, even though they’re separated and Daisy’s not even  _ super _ (based on how everything else was playing out, at least).

Halfway through their meal, Jemma’s phone interrupts her chastising of Fitz as he dives into chocolate muffin #3. “Hello?”

“Agent Simmons, where are you and Agent Fitz?” 

She recognizes the voice; it belongs to some higher ranking Sci-Ops agent whose name she could never remember. “We went out for breakfast, we signed out with security when we left.”

“There’s an agent from Communications that needs you back asap, some security issue, she didn’t tell me the details. Hurry back.”

_ Finally, something goes right. _ Jemma hangs up, trying not to convey how relieved she is. If that agent is Daisy, they might have a fighting chance. “Fitz, we’ve got to head back. There’s an agent who wants to question us about something.”

He pauses, mouth full of muffin. “What are we being questioned about?”

“They didn’t say.”

~

This is the one and only time Daisy’s ever been grateful that Simmons dragged her around the Hub the first time they visited. She knows the place well enough that she can walk through with a sense of purpose in direction, just like her fabricated id says she should be able to. And it would not be wrong to say she’s channeling her inner Melinda May, because acting authoritative and bitter towards virtually everyone ensures that no one wants to deal with her. The less people (read: bits of code) she has to interact with the better.

Apparently Fitzsimmons are out for food or something, so she wanderers around their lab for a bit, checking out projects. There’s an in progress ICER that she recognizes from the Bus, along with a scribbled list of possible names, which mostly consisted of Jemma’s handwriting vetoing all of Fitz’s ideas. She’d laugh if there wasn’t another agent watching her every move. Surprisingly enough, “night-night gun” is still in the running, which gives her a bout of sadness before the door opens, and Fitzsimmons walk through. Simmons looks like she’s trying to hide her excitement, Fitz just looks confused as fuck.

“Agent Fitz, Agent Simmons, good. Can you give us a minute? Or like, twenty.” The other agent there grumbles about it, but leaves. 

Simmons awkwardly steps forward. “Hullo, agent….”

“Johnson, thanks. I wanted to talk to you two about an opportunity to do some field work, if you should be so inclined.” Daisy Johnson doesn’t exist yet, so using her real name is a safe enough bet. And she just needs to get Simmons to the rendezvous point so they can reconvene in the real world and make a game plan. Easy enough, as long as Fitz doesn’t need too much convincing. 

“Well, we actually just declined an offer from a different agent, so we’re good, thanks.” Fitz doesn’t even stutter, and Daisy can tell that Jemma has to work to hide her surprise. He was not this confident when she first met him on the Bus. Weird.

“It’s not a permanent job, just an assignment I need your knowledge for. You’ll be back in your lab in no time, I promise.”  _ The lab in the real world, working to dismantle Aida and the framework. _

“How about it, Fitz? We could get some actual field experience, but it wouldn’t be permanent. C’mon it’ll be an adventure.” Simmons bites her lip nervously. 

“Fine, but it can’t last more than a week. Once you’re there for a week they suck you in.” 

Daisy tilts her head. “Who is ‘they’?”

**Author's Note:**

> This one probably won't get more chapters because I'm not too invested, but you never know. 
> 
> Feedback, constructive criticism and/or requests are always welcome, especially for what other kinds of framework AUs you'd like to see.


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